Three Iranian films are planned to be screened in international film festivals of Portugal, Germany and Tunisia in the next days. The Iranian cinema is a unique one of its type because of its exclusive properties. It is empty from violence, immorality, affronts and insults and discourtesy.

Thanks to the new generation of directors, actors and actresses who has been introduced to the Persian artistic community after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the Iranian cinema is flourishing everyday and gaining a considerable international credit.

It is said that Iran is a cradle of arts and cultural endeavors because of its history, 7500 years of booked civilization. This can be said because of the outstanding poets that the country has presented to the world. Mevlana, Ferdowsi, Hafez and Rudaki.

Entertainment and spirituality are mixed in the Iranian cinema and it prevents the families, children or the youth to be offended by watching a 90 minutes movie while helping them to improve their ethics, mental health and happiness. That is why the Iranian films and movies are very popular in the countries with traditional customs and noble culture like South Korea, Bulgaria, Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Venezuela and Persian Gulf countries as well.

Today, Iran enjoys some renowned and notable artists in the field of cinema such as the famous female director Niki Karimi, the award winning producer Abbas Kiarostami and Majid Majidi, the international spiritual filmmaker as well.

Elnaz Shakerdoost, the famous Iranian actress

Furthermore, Golshifte Farahani is the first Iranian actress who ever co-played with Leonardo DiCaprio for a Hollywood film, being ranked alongside Pegah Agangarani, Tarane Alidoosti and Elnaz Shakerdoost as the most successful Iranian female actresses.

The latest reports show that the Iranian films are slated to be screened in three international film festivals worldwide: Negar Azarbaijani's "Virtual Truth" will be displayed at 2008 Lisbon International Horror Film Festival, Asqar Farhadi's "Fireworks Wednesday" will participate in the Carthage International Film festival in Tunisia and Saman Salour's "From the Land of Silence" is planned to be screened at Germany's Around the World in 14 Films Festival.

Another achievement for the Iranian cinema in recent weeks was that the World-renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has received the Glory to the Filmmaker award at the 65th Venice Film Festival.

In response to the question, "Does Persian culture contribute to a culture of peace," today, I have a simple question of you. Try to imagine a woven piece of "Gold" with its warps and woofs made of cotton and fuzz while its various forming colors resemble a heavenward garden full of wonderful trees, flowers and plants!

In my view, the question is too ordinary to be answered! Any wise man will instantly find it out that “carpet” is the keyword; a loom-woven, felted textile that is being used to cover the floor of halls, rooms and mostly to decorate walls, roofs and palms in favor of those who love elegance, dainty and grace.

But what do you know about the origin of this apparently worthless rug that never attracts anyone and slightly thrown off under your feet being trampled thousands of times each day by you and your family members?

Carpet’s origin of foundation is Iran and its history of production dates back to about 5th century BC when the Achaemenidan Empire was ruling.

The oldest documented carpet of the world is called Pazyryk that has been woven by the order of Cyrus the great in 500 BC in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz and still survives, archaeologists say.

Persian culture since the beginning of its perfection during the 600s BC until today is totally associated with some distinguished arts such as miniature, calligraphy and carpet weaving, so we can claim that these precious arts are considered as the symbols of Persian civilization, in fact.

To the other words, Most of the people who don’t have much information about Iran and its luminous history are closely familiar with the outputs of Persian culture such as its performing and decorative arts.

Carpets are some applicable proofs for the claim that Persian productions are widely being used throughout the world regardless to their nationality.

Saffron and tea are also in the same conditions while originated from Iran but the majority of their international users do not know about the birthplace of these treasure floras.

However we have to keep in mind that Iran is a cradle of carpets and rugs production.

The world’s most professional masters of carpet-weaving are currently working inside traditional looms and workshops of Persian ancient cities such as Kashan, Tabriz, Yazd, Isfahan and Qom and their powerful hands manipulating wools, silk, cotton, chords and yarns to finally ensue the dazzling results that we spread under our feet unconcernedly.

The carpets of highest quality are often woven by hand whereas machine-made carpets gain less quality, credibility and artistic value, so the most people try to pay more so as to buy the hand-woven carpets.

It is necessary to add that the average of time needed for a beautiful illustrated carpet to come out (by hand) is approximately 400 hours and it undoubtedly shows the pure struggles of painstaking weavers who form the carpet knots with their sense of responsibility, love and talent.

Carpets are the most popular souvenirs in Persia and families who want to dispatch gifts to their relatives outside Iran will always choose small-sized tufted or needlefelt carpets with fantastic warp and weft threads which shape spectacular sights of natural and ancient scenes.

The most-used designs for carpets are consisted of abstract natural landscapes ornamented by warm and almost red-spectrum colors.

The dominant equipment used for carpet weaving process are still the traditional instruments of past centuries such as spun and spindles.